Wednesday, May 1st - Great Bridge, NC to Deltaville, VA (Day 28)
58 nautical miles today. 1,121 total trip miles
Sunny and warm. Winds light from the south. 70 degrees
Plan for today is a short run through the lock and last of the Norfolk bridges to the anchorage at Old Point Comfort. This would set us up for a run up Chesapeake Bay tomorrow to Deltaville or Little Bay.
We left the dock at 9am just before the bridge opening so we could assure a place on the southern side of the lock. If this side fills up and you have to tie up on the north side, you need to put out fenders. The south side has big rubber bumpers built into the lock.
There is always a lock-master to help with lines and we quickly tied up way down the end next to the exit doors. Laura and I just relaxed and waited for the 6 powerboats behind us to tie up, the doors behind us close and all the boats lowered about 1.5 feet. No problems as we exited the lock 1/2 hour later then I pulled over and slowed down so all the powerboats could pass us with low wakes. Here they are all in front of us zooming away.
My only worry now was the Gilmerton Bridge that was only about 3 miles away. They opened "on request" but we typically have to wait for less traffic depending on how long it's been since they opened. Or, there is a railroad bridge right next to Gilmerton Bridge that sometimes is down and holds us up. All of the powerboats that passed us should be able to make it under Gilmerton's 35 feet of clearance with the bridge down so I wasn't worried about one of them requesting an opening before we got there.
I was monitoring the bridge radio frequency when I hear one of the powerboats call for an opening. We were still maybe 10+ minutes away at the time. Crap. If they opened for the powerboat, they would close before we got there and we'd have to wait for traffic to clear. Probably 1/2 hour or so.
The bridge operator questioned the powerboat needing an opening and the powerboat captain stated they needed 38 feet. I did remember a sportfishing boat in the lock with outriggers (for fishing) that stuck up pretty high. Why didn't he just lower them for the bridge?
Anyway, the bridge operator said he would have to wait for traffic to clear so I chimed in that we were a sailboat about 10 minutes away that would also need an opening. The bridge operator said they would wait for us and the bridge opened shortly after we arrived. Nice!
Now there were 2 or 3 railroad bridges that we had to worry about but they were normally open. No problems today as we cruised through Norfolk and passed ICW Mile 0 (Hospital Point) a short while later. This is a big milestone for us as we now passed 1,200 ICW miles from Marathon and are now into open waters - no more bridges that had to open!
Here is Hospital Point - ICW Mile 0.
Well.... We were almost free....
About 1/2 hour later we were pulled over by a U.S. Coast Guard RIB (rigid inflatable boat) for a safety inspection. Oh yeah. It's May 1st so maybe they are trying to get their quota early.
Three of the "Coasties" came on-board and they were very friendly. We had all the necessary requirements (we should after 15 years as a Merchant Mariner Captain) and they left a short time later after giving us a "Passed" worksheet. But first, they agreed to pose for a blog picture.
Now just a few miles passed the Norfolk Navy Docks then the anchorage.
Hmmm. I had been looking at the weather and today the winds and seas were much nicer then the next couple days. Maybe we should keep going? Laura typically is not as open to frequent change as I am and she wasn't pleased that we were bypassing a beautiful anchorage for another 40+ miles on the water. We discussed the options and she eventually agreed to keep going today because the next couple days would be short and easy - especially if the winds and waves picked up.
We altered course out of the harbor then turned north up the bay. As normal for this trip, we had the currents against us going out the harbor and for the first couple hours up the bay.
Here we are motoring along on a fairly calm Chesapeake Bay.
The tidal current picked up and we had 5-7 knot winds from the west that helped our speed after we rolled out the big sails. It was a pretty nice day on the water.
We motored into Deltaville and decided to anchor along the southern shore near Grimstead at 7pm. There were 3 other boats already anchored. They were some of the powerboats we had gone through the lock with at 9:30am. I'm sure they had been here at least a couple hours before us.
I grilled something for dinner which we ate in the cockpit watching a pretty sunset.
Now we had two days to travel less then 30 miles to our friends dock in Reedville. Time to relax a bit.
Thursday, May 2nd - Deltaville to Little Bay Anchorage (Day 29)
Start of week 5!
15 nautical miles today. 1,136 total trip miles
Warm and mostly sunny again. Temps rising into the 80s. Light NE winds.
Since we had lots of extra time now, I decided to work on the aft head again. It still was not pumping water. This is how I sometimes work complicated problems on the boat. If I can't fix them quickly and don't have any other ideas right now, as long as they are not urgent I take some time away from the problem to think about what I can try next.
I figured I would have to pull out the sea-strainer under the floor in the galley so I could push something through the hose to the head. I thought this would be really tough because the strainer is about 1 1/2 feet from the hatch access in the floor. But, I was able to disconnect the line going to the sea-cock (shut off valve) and pull the whole sea-strainer to the access hole.
The sea-strainer had a lot of mud in it which I cleaned out. Laura and I then search for and found our wire "fish" that is used to run wires through tight to reach places. It is basically a fairly hard wire rolled up on a spool with a small hook on the end that you could use to pull wires back. Laura and I were able to push the wire through the hose from the toilet end for about 12 feet. This should have been almost long enough to come out the other end but it wasn't. I couldn't push it any farther.
After pulling out the wire, I tried the Swoosh air pressure thing and, this time, it worked! I was even able to blow through the hose with my mouth. Yea!
I hooked everything back up and it worked. As I was tightening the hose fittings around the sea-strainer, I saw a little rubber ball down near the hull. This hadn't been there before. It turns out this is what was stuck in the hose. The ball is from a check-valve "T" that's in the hose just before the toilet so our Electra San salt tank doesn't drain out the sea-cock. Somehow this had come apart and the ball got lodged in the hose. Have you read enough about this now?
We pulled the anchor at 10:45 am for the short run out to the bay, about 10 miles north, then west again into the anchorage at Little Bay. It was another pretty day on the water with light winds.
We anchored in Little Bay at 1:30pm. There was a beautiful beach about 1/4 mile from the boat.
We've walked all over the island and beach in the past but the tide was rising and most of it would soon be under water. Instead we decided to just relax and enjoy the afternoon.
Over the next few hours, two other sailboats came in and also anchored near us. Another pretty sunset. This was one of the other anchored sailboats.
Tomorrow will be another short run of 10 miles up the bay then 5 miles through Reedville to the dock.
Friday, May 3rd - Little Bay to Reedville (Day 30)
Mostly sunny with calm winds that picked up to NE at 18-22 about 1/2 way through our trip.
15 nautical miles today. 1,151 total trip miles
It was another nice morning as we pulled the anchor at 8:30am. I was just a little concerned about the forecast. Windfinder.com showed calm until about 10am when the winds would pickup to almost 20 from the NE. We should almost be to Reedville by then.
This is a picture leaving Little Bay. The stakes in the water are fishing nets put in by the locals. They are called "fish traps" and you don't want to motor through them in the night. Notice how calm the water is.
As we motored out of Little Bay, we had to run NE for about 5-6 miles to get around a couple shallow areas before we could turn north up the Chesapeake. Just after we turned north, the NE wind built in a little so we rolled out the jib. I went out on the bow to check everything and Laura snuck in this picture of me. Notice the seas are a little higher than the picture above an hour ago.
The wind increased quickly so Laura and I rolled in about 1/4 of the jib to prevent the gusts from blowing us over so much. About 1/2 hour later it was a lively sail and Laura took this short video. It's hard to believe this is the same morning.
We eventually turned downwind into the Great Wicomico harbor then pulled in the sail before turning north to Reedville. 1/2 hour later we approached their house and dock. Their house is the large white one in the foreground. The dock is the empty one behind the sailboat.
It was a fun reunion with good friends after we tied up and put the boat to bed.
One item I forgot to mention was we had planned to be here on Friday because we love the atmosphere, wine and music / dancing at the local Good Luck Cellars - "Wine Down Friday." It didn't disappoint as we arrived at the winery a few hours later. Walter and Mary always get up for at least one dance.
There was a Cajun Food Truck at the winery for chow. Laura and I split the shrimp po boy that was excellent. A couple hours later we came back to the house and said good-night for the evening. It was a fun day!
Saturday, May 4th - May 8th - Reedville (Days 31-36)
We didn't move the boat for 5 days. There was some nasty weather over the weekend but it wasn't as bad as forecast. We spent our late afternoon and evenings together with cocktail hour inside because of the colder temps outdoors. I also paid for our dockage by working a few small projects around the house.
Sunday was Cinco De Mayo so we celebrated with margaritas.
Monday morning we borrowed their pick-up for a ride to NJ for personal business. No problems with the 6 hour drive. We took the Annapolis Bay Bridge instead of going through Baltimore and risking the increased traffic because of the container ship bringing down the Francis Scott Key bridge.
Tuesday afternoon we drove to our friends Tony and Lyn's in Gainesville, VA (outside of Washington). Tony is a longtime friend of mine from the early 1990s when we worked together. He is a great musician so we have lots in common (I strive to be a good musician...).
After dinner we retired to the music-room basement. Tony has about 20 guitars hanging from the walls. He used to fix them up to sell but he became attached to so many he stopped that.
I played some flute for them and Tony played some of a song he's been working on. We had lots of fun (and wine) including a session of Tony playing guitar and me on the flute for a couple songs. Nice!
Next morning we had breakfast then relaxed a bit before we left around 11am for the 3 hour drive back to Reedville. Tony and Lyn are such good friends who we only see every few years. But, each time we see them it's like we just left. Good people.
Back in Reedville we had cocktail hour on the porch and it was a record 90 degrees. We had a nice last dinner together as the weather looked nice for leaving tomorrow for points north.
It's always hard to leave here but we plan on getting to Georgetown, MD by Sunday or Monday for another rental car trip to NJ.
Thursday, May 9th - Reedville to Choptank River (Day 37)
Cloudy with afternoon rain. Temp 70 and falling. Winds calm becoming NE @ 15 in the afternoon.
Storms were predicted for later in the evening so we decided to get an early start up the bay. It was cloudy and calm as we motored away from the dock at 7:45am for the 1 hour ride back to the Chesapeake where we could again turn north.
Once on course up the Chesapeake, it was a very relaxing morning.
There were lots of pleasure boats heading north with a combination of sail and power.
Our plan for today was to anchor in the Solomons - about 40 miles up the bay. Once again, after checking weather forecasts for tonight and tomorrow, we decided to keep going and use one of the nice anchorages around the Choptank River for the storms tonight. I didn't want to be in a crowded Solomons anchorage if there were high winds from the thunderstorms.
Instead, I found this anchorage near Hills Point Cove just south off the Choptank. It was pretty easy in and out plus should give us excellent protection from the forecast E to NE winds.
This is a screenshot from my chartplotter showing a section of Chesapeake Bay. I drew a red "X" with a circle around it where we anchored. It's just right of center. The green line coming in from the south (bottom) was our track going in today and the green line heading up the screen from the anchorage was our track out tomorrow.
The bay formed a nice half-moon that should protect us from anything but west winds.
We anchored in calm waters and had another nice dinner in the cockpit. The storms tonight would be dropping the temps so this might be my last day in shorts and t-shirt. I had put out a little extra anchor chain to prepare for the storms. We had 155 feet of chain out for 21 feet of water plus height of the bow pulpit.
Another pretty sunset from a new-to-us anchorage.
We relaxed and hit the sack early knowing that storms were scheduled for middle of the night.
Oh boy. Just before 2am the lightning started and winds picked up. The boat was moving around pretty good but I could see from my AquaMaps anchor watch that we were not dragging. The boat was moving around because the storms had clocked the winds to the NW which were bringing bigger waves to the boat. We were facing into the waves but the stern was bouncing up and down a couple feet on each wave. Here was the cell phone radar.
We were at the blue dot. Right in the middle of a lot of "red shit". Notice the time in the upper left. Why does this always seem too happen at 2am?
Luckily for us, the storms passed quickly and the winds clocked back to the NE. Our boat calmed down after only about 1/2 hour. We slept well the rest of the night.
Friday, May 10th - Choptank to Annapolis (Day 38)
Cloudy and cooler. Winds NE-E at 15-20, gusts to 25. Temp 62
30 nautical miles today. 1,239 total trip miles.
It was a crazy start of the day. I knew the winds would be higher today and make sailing a little uncomfortable if the seas picked up too. But we only had about 30 miles to Annapolis after coming an extra 15 miles north of Solomons yesterday.
We pulled the anchor 8:45am after being up in the night with storms and sleeping in a little. As we motored back to Chesapeake Bay, I rolled out 3/4 jib to help with the boat speed. As we turned north and the winds rolled down the open Choptank, the ride was pretty bouncy on the 3 foot, close seas.
All the forecasts called for 12-15 knot N-NE winds. I don't think we saw anything less than 15 all day.
I kept counting down the miles until we were behind the land at Tilghman Island and the seas should be better. Eventually, things did calm down behind the last after a few "death rolls" on the larger waves coming around the tip of land.
This picture is just after noon after things had calmed down.
The weather forecast for the next couple days kept changing. Now tomorrow looked good for motoring up to the Sassafras River where we planned on spending several days. After tomorrow, there were several days of storms.
We had planned on going into Back Creek (near Annapolis) and picking up a mooring for a couple days before sailing up to the Sassafras. But now, we decided to skip Annapolis this trip and head to Sassafras tomorrow.
I picked an anchorage just north of Annapolis near Whitehall Bay and it started raining about 30 minutes before we anchored at 1:45pm. It was a short day but we both were tired from the storms last night so we used the afternoon for nice naps.
It turned out to be a quiet night at this anchorage and we appreciated it.
Saturday, May 11th - Annapolis to Sassafras River (Day 39)
Clear and sunny (yea!). 53 degrees last night with high of only 64 today.
38 nautical miles today. 1,277 total trip miles
We pulled the anchor up at 8:45am and motored back to the Chesapeake. I told Laura we'd have light winds and calm seas today. She said, "I'll believe it when I see it..."
There was a light chop from the north when we first motored out. This was about an hour after leaving the anchorage. We were north of the Bay Bridge and looking back. You can see there is still some chop on the water.
The day was nice but chilly as we motored through the open part of the bay and entered the narrow northern section. We did have the tidal currents for a couple hours but they eventually turned against us.
Here we are turning into the Sassafras River around 2:30pm. Notice how much the water had calmed.
Yesterday I had called Sailing Associates (in Georgetown) and made reservations for us on Monday and Tuesday. We had a couple days to kill and planned on anchoring in the Sassafras enjoying the calm water anchorage.
We anchored just around the first turn by Turner Creek at 3:3pm. Winds were forecast to be S to SE this evening and tonight so this anchorage should be very protected from winds and waves.
I started the Honda generator and turned on the heat to warm up the boat. It was only low 60s inside. Our "Cruise Air" type heat works great and it warmed up the boat quickly. We kept it running until bedtime.
We had burgers off the grill and green salad for dinner. The little Sun poking through the clouds had the cockpit warm enough for us to eat dinner there again.
The temps tonight were going down into the high 40s and storms again tomorrow. I called Sailing Associates and eventually was forwarded to Brooke on her cell phone. She told me the marina office is not open on weekends but the calls are sent to her. She OK's us coming in tomorrow instead of Monday. We'll have full-time heat tomorrow night!
Some storms passed around us in the evening but no big winds or thunder. It was a quiet night but I did hear rain falling just before sunrise.
Sunday, May 12th - Sassafras River to Georgetown (Day 40)
Cloudy with storms and light winds. Temps in the 50s
5.5 nautical miles today. 1,282 total trip miles
Since we were only going about 5 miles to the marina today, we slept in and took our time with coffee and breakfast. I even started this blog!
Around 11:30am we decided to pull anchor and head into the marina. Neither of us had checked the radar on our cell phones. That wasn't too smart....
As I was pulling the anchor, I heard thunder behind me to the west. As I looked over my shoulder, I could see dark clouds heading our way. What should I do now? I decided to keep pulling the anchor and we would motor a couple miles up the river to an anchorage more protected than this one. I didn't want to be near the marinas and lots of other boats if a thunderstorm came through.
A few minutes later we were on our way watching the storms to the west. 1/2 hour later we anchored off Knights Island with storms all around us. I couldn't believe we got re-anchored before the rain started.
We let out our "storm" length of anchor chain and sat back to watch the show. I came back downstairs to work on more blog. At one point a big storm passed just south of us. I went up into the cockpit and could see rain where we were anchored just an hour ago. Hey! We did something right!
Finally, around 2pm, things cleared up enough that we decided to head into the marina. No problem as we pulled the anchor for the second time today and motored the remaining 3 miles to the marina.
Brooke had given me great directions to our slip and it was wide open going in. I didn't even have to turn the boat down a marina fairway or anything.
By 3pm we were tied up and I was happy with the lines and fenders. Here is Second Wind tied up at Sailing Associates. I did brighten this picture a little because of the cloudy day with a little Sun in the background.
We'll be staying here for at least 3 nights. Maybe longer if the weather is crappy when we get back from NJ on Tuesday.
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